I am sitting here at ..the airport, cant always be sitting in an amazing place.
2 days ago we woke on comfy beds , dragged ourselves out for breakfast with better appearing food that it actually tasted. the better the hotel the more average the food i think, but there is always bread and butter where the fried rice is not great. the day is foggy and colder then yesterday. we headed out and again found a local guide to take us to cat cat village, also a Hamond tribe village, but closer to sapa, we started the steep way down on the road, passing many shops and more villages with the usual greeting of "buy from me..." "shopping" and "come back, buy from me later". it also started raining heaver and heavier and in one of the shops we realized that our water proof gear is no proof of being dry.
North face is made in Vietnam and their gear is everywhere here and cheap. we all got fancy gore-text weather gear or as Moti calls it "Gatkes" then the rain stopped.
we began walking the steps of the village, passing local houses, seeing how they live and work. they make the begs they sell right there in front of us. the many stairs lead to a pretty waterfall and then the rain continues, so the gear is not wasted. we continue to walk the interesting village and the rain gets stronger, we stop at one shop and try to wait the heavy rain out and watch one of the store owners which sells cheap souvenirs playing poker on her iPhone.
we kept walking in the rain and came to the end of the village, now we had a choice, taxi or walk up steep 3+k . we split, Moti and I made the stupid choice to walk up in the drenching rain. an hour plus later we reached the hotel , and now finally the sky clears and we manage to get nice shots of the mountain range .a little while post shower later we ate some fried noodles in the same place we had dinner the night before. it is the afternoon now and not much to do, so we went napping or movie clip editing then headed for dinner. Pho was good tonight.
as we limped out of the restaurant we noticed a foot massage across the street to red dao people salt bath. i wanted to sleep but i joined the massage effort. this massage is on big chairs, we sit, and they soak our fit in warm water with unknown oils and herbs and then get on the chair and sit behind us in the chair and begin rubbing my temples. this is a foot massage mind you. many minutes of head massage, neck and back massage, then they wipe of feet and begin leg massage. we all sit side by side and the atmosphere is very jovial. we are laughing from this experience and so do they. both me and shai have a guy, Libi a female and Moti's is an unknown, a tiny frail thing, even by Vietnam standards. it is a girl of 18 after all, smaller then my 11 year old niece. when the massages starts working on my calf muscles and notices my flinching, he shows it to the other therapist and they start laughing. he work a lot of my right more trouble calf muscle and then a bit less on the left.
during the treatment a coupe of drunk touring stumble in, the locals try to get rid of them, but give in at least. our therapist all seem embarrassed by it and look apologetic. Vietnam is a very sincere nation. after this 45 minute enjoyable experience, we pay the 5$ fee and tip and limp less up the road to the hotel.
the next morning was still foggy, we checked out then haggled with a cab driver, he wanted 500, 000 dong to take us to Tafin village. after long negotiations we settled for 25$ much to the happiness of the driver (25$=500,000 dong). the very slow road takes us next to several villages, there is still fog, but this area is lower, and we can see a bit further. this is village of the red zao people, they wear a very distinguishable red sort of hat. or the woman anyway. the man wear nothing distinct. as we reach the village, the local swarm on the taxi even before it stops with the usual greetings, but soon they see that we are not buying...after buying to much in the previous days and only one of them lingers as we walk from this village to the next. we pass rice fields and watch the locals hard at work. we see a couple of villages, which are more of what a village was in my mind. lots of fields, simple houses, lots of chickens, pigs, ducks scattered around all with their young ones. the locals are less clingy here, this is a slightly more remote village. there is little rain today, but it is colder.
we take the taxi back to town while Moti debates the driver on the distance. the supposed 15k is only 10.5k but now the driver suddenly does not understand English.
during lunch power went out in the area, and there was some concern on is the chicken being kept in a cooler or not in this state, but no one to ask. they cook on gas , so no issues and i add my steam rice in to the Pho soup and the result is a very filling bowl.we walk this lovely town a bit more, occasionally dodging the usual greetings. when ever we say no more money or no more room they start to giggle. these people know how to nag in a very friendly way. in every village our shopaholic purchased something.
the hotel offers a spa with a pool and showers you can use post check out since most travelers take the shower-less night train. i take my phone with me to the shower for safe keeping and place it on some hooks. the change and head out , reach for my phone and i cant find it. i go back and ransack my locker, my back, i look in the shower, toilet and it is no where. i inform the locals and they are all worried, the call manager and security and we all rummage together, they bring flash lights and search underneath the lockers, in and out of the air conditioner, this search takes about 20-30 minutes. these people are very concerned of my property. there was one other tourist with us and we assume he grabbed it. in the end the phone is found on the hooks in the shower, which you don't see when you open the door, the hooks are behind. i thank the crew and forget to tip.
on the way out there is a sand volley ball court and for some reason a goat is tide in one end pooping on the sand court, how random
we take the van back to lao cai, and wait an hour, get some dinner before the night train. Mom gives us the tickets while she and moti go first to the train. when we get theere and show the ticket, he says its not good. we have the vouchers, but the little stub ticket was kept with them.
i stay by the guard while shay goes cabin by cabin search, he says he almost went to the end and found nothing. he goes back and forth and we start texting them to bring the tickets, 10 minutes pass and the train will leave soon. then something crazy blond and waving a ticket comes. they were 12 train carts away, shai didn't search the whole train. they finally realized they had the tickets and came to get us. we got in the cabin after the non English speaking search our cabin for hiding passengers. tired, i slept most of the night on the rocking train and now after an hour taxi ride with a BO driver that beeped all the way to chase away the mopeds took us to the airport. on the way we passed by Ho chi Minh tomb, passed several nice gardens and the big lage with many locals doing tai chi and enjoyed this nice town for a short while.
now at the airport, flight is a little over an hour away, new destination, Hue
